The Supreme Leader by Don X. Nguyen

9/30/2025

While we might not have gone to high school in Switzerland with the kids of international diplomats, we’ve all had the experience of navigating high school and the expectations of our parents. We remember what it’s like, and maybe are still trying to fit in, find where we belong, and learn more about who we are. We will likely never know what truly was the real life Un’s experience, but here we explored what could’ve been the most fun possibilities. 

When I first read The Supreme Leader, I did not expect to relate to the current dictator of North Korea as much as I did. As a Korean American that grew up in a suburb right in between Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Dutch, most of my interactions with Korean culture were through the K-Pop music videos on YouTube or the VHS tapes of K-dramas or comedy shows we rented from the Korean grocery store. North Korea as a whole was always a mystery to me, with South Korean media often painting the thin ice they walked on with the North, but with American pop culture media usually making Kim Jong Un the butt of a joke. And so, when it came to telling Don’s brilliant story of The Supreme Leader, I wondered what it would be like for Kim Jong Un, or in our case Un, to remember his time in Liebefeld like one of the homemade videos or family sitcoms we all grew up watching regardless of what generation we’re in. 

As an artist, I firmly believe that laughter, silliness, and community are incredibly necessary when it comes to theatremaking and storytelling, but also for just living. I hope you all get to laugh and be silly with us.